Inside Woman
by OlegGunnarsson
Summary: Nagini resigned herself long ago to life as a snake. She never dreamed that she would have the chance to walk again - until she met a most unusual wizard.


**A/N: This is a companion piece to my earlier one-shot "Inside Man". You need not have read that story to understand this one, but it may be helpful. Enjoy.**

* * *

 _17 April 1954_  
 _Dresden, East Germany_

She had found the perfect little cafe, located on the outskirts of the city. It was small enough that the location did not hinder its business, but large enough to have a respectable lunch menu. On a lazy Saturday afternoon, it turned out that she was their only customer - which left the waiter plenty of time to give her personal service.

Nagini thought it was delightful. A perfect send-off.

The menu had a good mix of hearty German fare, mixed with favorites from Poland and parts East. That would explain how they stay in business, for who else but the local barracks would order Russian delicacies from a German cafe? It was another sign, for her - time to move on.

Lunch was served quickly, but she could tell that the cook had cut no corners. She much enjoyed the salad, with some regret, as it would not be long now before she would not have time for greens. Her other half much preferred meat, as one might expect.

She had been surprised by the tea, however. It almost reminded her of London, and that little shop in Diagon Alley she had visited, and now never would again. Snakes, as it turned out, rarely crossed the channel.

"Miss?" The waiter had approached again. She was used to it, even now, for though she was easily in her fifties, she still kept the youthful look she had enjoyed in her twenties. _Just like Paris_ , she thought to herself. So long ago. For all the pain and heartbreak of those years, she still had fond memories of the circus, and her time among her people. Her people, she still thought of them that way.

But they had been there for her, when no others would. They saw her, and not her curse. A woman, not a label. _Maledictus_.

"Yes, Hans?"

"Miss, I wanted to ask, did you need anything else?" The boy seemed nervous, unlike earlier when he had taken out all the stops to make a show of being a proper waiter. She had chuckled when he pulled out her chair, then folded her napkin in front of her. Being the only customer does funny things to the staff, as it turns out, but how else would the boy earn his tip?

"I need nothing else for the moment, Hans, thank you." She raised her cup of tea in his direction. "Please tell Frederick that he has outdone himself once again."

"I shall. Thank you." With a slight bow, he went back inside.

There was not a great deal to look at, even sitting outdoors on a clear day. Nagini watched the trees sway in the breeze, before the flags alongside a nearby school caught her eye. The fabric rippled in the breeze, reminding her too much of slithering motion.

A rhythmic sound to her right caused her to lean forward, looking down the street. There, she saw a group of 30 soldiers in their workout clothes, jogging past. She smiled when several of them turned their heads to look at her, and then laughed when their sergeant caught them at it. She did not speak Russian, but she could hear angry anyday.

After a few minutes, and once her plates had been cleared, she heard Hans approach once more. He set a piece of lemon cake down in front of her.

"Hans?" she asked.

"Miss, you've been coming here for a month, now, and this is the dessert you ask for most often. So we thought we would treat you." The boy was still nervous, but less so now.

"And to what do I owe this generosity?" She asked, one eyebrow raised. The amusement was clear on her features, but she liked making the boy squirm.

Hans looked at her. "It seemed the right time." He held up a hand. "Don't ask me how he knows, but Frederick says it's time, and that you know it's time, and that that's why you're here today."

Nagini paused, then turned and looked into the cafe. The cook was standing at the counter, watching her. When she saw him, he nodded to her and raised his glass. She responded with her own cup, without thinking.

 _So much for going unnoticed_ , she thought.

"In that case, Hans," she said, looking at the waiter. "Please offer my thanks to your cook, and tell him that I wish him well." She took her fork and went to work on the cake.

"Yes, Miss." Hans bowed again and left her to it.

When Hans emerged from the kitchen with a fresh pot of tea, he saw that the woman had left. All these days, and we never even learned her name. He walked over to the table, and saw that the dessert plate had some marks sticking out from underneath. Lifting the plate, he took the money and counted it. Then he counted it again.

For a meal that cost less than a few marks, the woman had left over seven hundred marks, as well as some coins to boot. It was not a neat stack of bills, either - to Hans, it seemed as if she had just left whatever money she happened to be carrying.

Hans looked up and down the street, wondering if he would see her. But she was gone.

Nagini walked to the edge of town slowly, savoring the journey just as much as she had her last meal. Had anyone been watching the young woman, they might have noticed a slight limp. It did not bother her, the small pain in her knee. Soon, she would not have a knee to worry her.

When she reached the forest, she took a deep breath, savoring the breeze. Tasting the wind. Old habits, she mused.

It had been forty-nine days since she had last shifted forms. Seven sevens. She knew it would not be long, now, and had decided to make this shift, her last shift, on her own terms. Oh, she could have delayed it, perhaps even another week, if she had fought. But the knee was only the beginning. Soon, the rest of her 'extra' parts would begin to weaken.

She had swore, long ago, to go out on her feet. Today was that day.

Nagini raised her arms above her head, performing her dance one last time. She bent her knees, twirling as she did so, bringing her arms down and around her. The cool breeze passed her once more, catching her short black hair, even as it shortened and disappeared.

She lowered herself to her knees, but now it could best be called her knee, for her legs had already shifted, and the rest of her followed rapidly. Soon, only the snake remained.

Nagini flexed her muscles, testing each joint, each ridge. She tasted the air, and found the fragrance sweeter than she ever had. Part of her wondered why she had delayed this for so long, fighting her fate for so many years.

Part of her knew why. And that part of her screamed to itself, silently.

Nagini slithered to the East. Toward the sunrise. Toward prey.

She was home.

oOoOoOoOo

 _19 December 1989_  
 _Timișoara, Socialist Republic of Romania_

Nagini had always been a city dweller.

Living and travelling with a circus, you learn to move and live within any city, finding the places to see (and to be seen), or to pass between those places while going unseen and unheard. Even now, with her life as it was, she preferred the dark places within an old city to the empty darkness of the forests. It was a reminder, or perhaps a memorial, of her past.

The sharp crack of gunfire woke her from her slumber. This, too, was a reminder - though, in those days, it had been spellfire.

Nagini had found a narrow crevice between buildings, in the oldest quarter of the city, and had taken to returning there at night. Both ends were blocked off, mostly, so it was a relatively safe place. But the angry shouts of men and the screams and the gunfire told her that that safety was soon to end.

The gunfire means muggles, she thought. There was a small magical enclave south of the city, little more than a village - but hidden behind muggle-repelling wards. If she could get there, she'd be safe.

Slithering out of her hiding place, she saw that the street was covered in shade. No, wait, there was a vehicle parked beside her exit. As she considered her options, there was a great BOOM from the machine, and she saw it rock back and forth.

 _A tank. I'm underneath a tank._

She had to escape, but the only way out was forward. And she saw two pairs of boots in her way. Had she still been human, she would have sighed, and then cracked her knuckles. Surging forward, she swept her tail across the opening, knocking the soldiers aside. Then she leapt forward, putting on as much speed as she could.

The two soldiers she had not seen, standing as they were beside the tank, didn't know what to do. They watched as the largest snake they had ever seen darted past them and into an alleyway.

Nagini was acting on pure instinct, now. She had to get away. Get to safety. The alley ended in a fence, but she was able to push her way through a gap. The street beyond was clear, at least as far as she could tell. She let her magic pulse slightly, in the equivalent of a Point Me spell, before turning to the South.

She kept herself next to the buildings as she passed, sliding underneath fences and between planter boxes as she went. She looked down side streets, as she could, but her instincts were screaming at her to move faster - so she did.

The patrol walking down a cross street barely saw her. But the private in front of the group didn't hesitate. The boy got four shots off before his superior stopped him. They had not seen her.

That did little to stop the burning sting across her back, from the bullet that had grazed her. She tasted the air once more, and decided that she did not smell enough of her blood to stop. She still had to keep moving.

She found the small church that hid the entrance to the wizarding village, and stopped dead.

Four soldiers were talking to each other, laughing. Their weapons were strapped to their shoulders, and they were drinking coffee (or perhaps something stronger). Nagini had to get to the rear of the Church Yard, then pass through a gate that would only open with a pulse of magic. But she couldn't pass while those soldiers were there.

She slithered closer, keeping herself against the old buildings across the street from the church. As she approached, she saw what the soldiers were guarding. Along the sidewalk, in front of the church, there were rows of lumpy, irregular masses, each covered in sheets. Most of the sheets were stained red.

Many of them were very small.

The church doors had been blown off their hinges. The air tasted of gunpowder and fear and death. Those children hid and this is what they got.

The snake was fully in control, now, as she turned and began to cross the road. The soldiers did not see her. They knew nothing of what came for them until they heard a singular HISSSSSSSS.

 _Dinner, Nagini_ , she said to herself, as she struck. None of the soldiers were parselmouths, as it happened, but she managed to get her point across.

As night fell, Nagini looked out from a hilltop, just inside the forested area south of the city. She saw the fires burning, she heard the gunfire. She could not, thankfully, hear the screams of the dying.

It would be a very long time before she entered another city.

oOoOoOoOo

 _3 February 1994_  
 _Ostren i Madh, Albania_

Nagini tended to avoid other snakes in her travels.

She knew that she was quicker and larger than almost any other natural snake, especially any that she might find in this part of Europe. It was not out of concern that other snakes might threaten her that she avoided them.

Rather, she always felt as if she wouldn't fit in as a snake, that she wouldn't pass, for lack of a better term. She had grown up human, spent the first fifty-odd years of her life as a woman pretending to be a snake. Now she was a snake pretending that she was once a woman.

She had been part of both worlds - but at home in neither.

The snake she found this night, however, was different. It was small, almost weak looking, but her gaze was drawn immediately to the piercing red eyes that had tracked her movement as she entered the clearing.

A small snake like that, it would usually flee almost instantly. So a snake that watched her, almost calculatingly? That caught her interest.

Was it protecting a kill? No, she smelled nothing in the air. Nor could she detect a lair or hideaway. So what exactly was going on?

As she moved across the clearing, looking at those red eyes, she felt something she had not felt in decades. Something brushed against her mind. _Legilimency?_ Her eyes widened as she realized exactly who was probing her memories, and she turned and broke eye contact.

"Fool, who dares?" Nagini hissed, beginning to circle around her prey. She was less concerned about how a small snake in the middle of nowhere could use magic, and more concerned with what had to be a threat.

"I dare," the snake hissed back. "My apologies, great lady, I mistook your nature."

Nagini paused. "What are you?"

"I am a fellow traveller, like yourself, just hoping to survive."

She pulsed her magic, seeing what it found. It was like tasting the air, she had learned. Her magic detected two minds before her, the simple one of the snake and… oh.

"You were a wizard." She said, simply. The other snake reared up a bit, as if in offense.

"I am a wizard, the once and future Dark Lord Voldemort." the snake circled, as if to say Look at me. "But for now, I am reduced to this meager existence."

Some wizard, she thought, if he has to possess a tiny little snake like that to survive… Then Nagini made the connection. The realization drew an angry hiss from her, and the other snake reared up in fear.

"You tried to possess me?" She almost growled in anger.

"As I said," Voldemort replied, "I did not know who you were. You have my apologies."

Nagini took only a moment to consider the creature. Even as a snake, and a small one at that, he had had enough magic to try a complex spell. What other tricks might he have up his sleeve? No, best to give this one a wide berth.

"Consider working on your manners, Dark Lord Voldemort. You will find more allies that way. And you will find more prey to the north, if you keep to the trees. I will not follow you." Without waiting for a reply, she turned and moved to the south, away from the dark creature she had found.

She had been alone for a long time. But everything about this Voldemort screamed danger and betrayal. _No, thank you._

oOoOoOoOo

 _12 July 1994_  
 _Kastriot, Albania_

Nagini woke up slowly. She could not taste the air, else she would reveal that she was awake, and so her information was limited. All she knew was that the rat she had been following had not been a rat, but a portly wizard dressed in filthy clothes and carrying two wands.

One of those wands had caught her in a stunner. It had been close to fifty years since she had had to properly dodge spells, and she had had legs then - but that did little to calm her anger at herself for getting caught.

"Ah, Nagini, welcome." She opened her eyes, and saw another snake. It was a larger one, perhaps a small python, but that mattered little - for she could see nothing past those red eyes.

"Voldemort." She said, neutrally. "You've grown."

A hissing laugh. "I have, my dear, and I've found a friend as well." She turned, and saw the portly man with a wand aimed at her.

Voldemort's eyes met the man's, and shortly the man nodded. "Worry not," said Voldemort. "This will not hurt you, much." The rat man began an incantation, and Nagini found that she could not move from her place.

A voice reached into her mind. It sounded like a child, but it spoke like…. well, like Voldemort, if she were honest about it. But its words were nothing the Dark Lord would ever utter.

 _I will protect you as best I can, Nagini._

That was all it said, that was all it had time to say. Before she could begin to consider the words, a deep purple light shot from the rat man's wand, striking her in the head.

She blinked, then opened her mouth in a great yawn. Then she looked around and saw him. His eyes were his, no matter his form.

The eyes of her bonded. Her only companion. Her Master.

oOoOoOoOo

 _23 July 1994_  
 _Kastriot, Albania_

Pettigrew returned to their little camp with a surprise - a witch by the name of Bertha Jorkins.

Nagini had little interest in the Wizarding world, these days, but the information her Master gleaned from the witch was of great interest to him, and so it interested her as well. She kept to the outskirts of the clearing, listening to the interrogation.

When her Master told Peter to begin the ritual, she felt a sense of dread at the back of her mind. But the rest of her quickly put that fear to rest, for she knew that her Master would never harm her purposefully.

And if he did harm her, it would have to be for a good reason. Right?

"Come, Nagini." said the tiny form of her Master. The gift of her venom had brought him a vaguely humanoid form, capable of human speech at least. They still spoke in parseltongue, of course, as befit her place as first among his followers.

She took her place at his side, just as she would remain at his side in all things.

"Nagini, my dear, this may sting a little." She did not have time to react before her Master lifted his wand and intoned the killing curse.

"Avada Kedavra!" A bolt of green magic struck the witch, and her corpse toppled over. Nagini watched the corpse, a feeling of dread coming over her. She did not hear the chanting from her Master.

An icy touch reached her, as if a cold hand was permeating her soul. It was an insistent, penetrating feeling, and it filled her with fear. She did not cry out for her Master, for she did not want to display her weakness, but as she felt the tendrils surrounding her mind she began to panic.

She closed her eyes, wishing for death as the pain increased. She did not thrash about, for she could not move. Nagini was imprisoned in her own mind, waiting for this presence to take control.

And then, she felt a golden shield surround her mind. It felt like sunrise and a new dawn, and where the light fell within her mind the darkness was pushed back. The light expanded, and the dark receded, before finally retreating entirely.

A growl of rage came from her Master, and she turned to see him scream. Blood, or what looked like it, was seeping from the thing's ears, and Pettigrew was in a panic as he moved to assist. Whatever Voldemort had attempted to do just after killing that witch, it had failed.

 _I could not let him corrupt you_ , the voice said. _For it would corrupt me as well._

 _Who are you?_ Nagini found herself thinking.

 _A Prisoner._ The voice replied. _Just like you._

oOoOoOoOo

 _11 June 1995_  
 _Little Hangleton, Yorkshire_

Nagini approached the old manor house just as Pettigrew was leaving. She did not care much for the wizard, and paid him little mind.

She did not notice the vacant look in his eyes as he walked to the edge of the wards.

Her Master was alone in the house, a rarity. She tried to stay close to him when the rat was away, just in case his tiny body needed aid in some fashion. The past months had weakened him, even with the potions, and he slept frequently.

Soon he would be restored, thanks to her venom and the rat's efforts. Soon her Master would return.

"Nagini," she heard him speak. "We've not got long to speak, tonight. Are you well?"

"Of course, my Master." She replied.

Those red eyes turned to her, but the light of the fire reflected off of the dark orbs, and she could not see the brilliant red she had known forever, it seemed.

"If I were to disappear tomorrow," her Master began, "gone from the face of the Earth, never to return, what would you do then, Nagini?"

The question had no answer - her Master was eternal, he had said so himself. And he had the magic to prove his claim, for she had seen the state of his soul. She knew the steps he had taken - and tried to take, as the failed ritual last year demonstrated. Nagini had not figured it out until later, but she now knew he had tried to make a Horcrux. And that he had made several before. Why the attempt failed remained unclear, but it was not her place to worry about such things.

"You cannot die, my Master." was her only response.

A dry chuckle, almost a cough, came from the creature. "Humor me with an answer, my dear."

When he put it that way, she had no choice. "I would hunt the ones who took you, and feast on their still warm meat. Then I would go back to the forests and wait to die."

"Indeed?" He sounded surprised. "Would it not be better to live?"

"I have lived, my Master." Nagini said nothing more.

Those eyes gazed into her again, inescapable. She ignored the flecks of green that she saw, the color of the killing curse.

"When I am restored, come to me. We will speak, you and I, on a great many things."

Nagini felt a jolt of fear go through her. "Would you have me leave your side, my Master?"

Another chuckle. "Not if I can help it." Voldemort's eyes closed. "I would rest now, my dear. Go, hunt, play. Soon there will be work enough for the both of us."

"Yes, my Master." Turning, she slithered out of the house and into the woods nearby. Despite his reassurance, the conversation had troubled her. She had much to think about.

oOoOoOoOo

 _24 June 1995_  
 _Little Hangleton, Yorkshire_

"Bone of the father, unwillingly given, you will renew your son!"

The rat man waved his wand, and Nagini watched the powdered bones float into the boiling cauldron. _We are in a cemetery_ , she thought. _Why did he have to fetch bones from elsewhere?_

She watched the young wizard struggle against his bonds, to no avail. Peter had, for once, done a good job in securing the youth. Despite the situation, Nagini could see that the boy was angry - if given a chance, he could prove dangerous to her Master.

Preventing that was her job in this whole production, she had been told. Remain on the outskirts of the cemetery, and observe. Protect your Master, do not harm the hostage. Bear Witness.

 _Bear Witness? As if I would miss the return of my Master._ Even in her mind, he was always "Master", rather than just her master.

Pettigrew held out the knife, his hands shaking. Nagini watched closely, wondering if the rat man's courage would hold. She did not see the pulse of magic from her Master, so she did not know why the rat man steadied himself and completed his task. The severed hand landed in the cauldron with a thick plop.

Still shaking, Pettigrew approached the boy. Nagini could hear the faintest whisper of… something, she was not sure. As if someone had spoken to her, as that voice had so long ago. It was like an echo of a memory.

She watched the knife cut the boy's arm, and saw him whispering to himself. Pettigrew added the blood to the cauldron, speaking his own incantation. Then the potion boiled violently, turning a bright green.

Nagini watched as her Master was placed in the liquid, before the rat man's courage failed and he fled. Wisely so, as it turned out, for the cauldron exploded moments later.

She tasted him, in the air, before she could see him through the mist. He was not what she had expected. She could not even feel their bond…

 _The bond!_ It was gone.

The man who should be her master but somehow wasn't created robes for himself, covering his human form. He was speaking to Pettigrew, who offered his arm and her Master's mark. The man touched his wand (her master's wand!) to the mark, summoning his followers, before the rat man scurried away in his cowardice. Then her master walked over to the boy, speaking in quiet tones.

Nagini slithered closer, listening, hoping to try to learn what had become of the bond. It had been part of her for so long, she could not understand what to do without it.

"Bear witness, Mister Diggory," her master said, calmly. Bear witness? That was what he had told her to do that night, weeks ago. What was going on?!

She heard the telltale pops of apparition, and saw the black cloaked forms of the Death Eaters. Fourteen had returned to her master's side, ready to fight and die for his cause.

"Look at me, my death eaters," He said. "Look what they did to me." He addressed them, many by name, speaking of their failures and their successes. She heard his anger at his time without a body of his own, his rage at the fate that had befallen him.

At the back of her mind, something warned Nagini of danger. But this was her master, surely no harm would come to her. _Right?_

He told the story of the prophecy foretelling his fall, and how he raged against his fate. He told of his death at the hands of a child, who even as he died managed somehow to slay her master. He spoke of his immortality, and of his power.

"And here, friends," he continued, walking over to the boy, "is the founder of the feast. The Triwizard Champion, Mister Diggory." Nagini could see her master's red eyes glowing with his emotion - and the feeling of it threatened to overwhelm her. Whatever else was happening, it was those eyes that convinced her. It was him.

Nagini saw her master disapparate, leaving a cloud of black mist. She saw him reappear behind his Death Eaters. She saw him wave his wand. And as she watched, she saw the rope of fire whip out from him and surround the fourteen.

She watched as the flame whip cut their necks, neatly and instantly. She watched their corpses fall, heard the heads roll away. In her fear, she retreated behind the headstones, for her master had slain his most loyal servants. What fate could possibly await her?

But she could not flee. Part of her, the part she had not thought about in years, had to know what had happened.

Voldemort was speaking with the Diggory boy. He waved his wand, and sent a great ghostly bird flying out across the graveyard. As it flew overhead, Nagini felt a wave of peace and calm wash over her. It trilled a song that cut her straight to her soul, and made her wish that snakes could weep.

Her master was speaking. "You helped set the stage for a battle between the remnant of Voldemort's soul, and the intact soul of the boy he tried to kill. The soul protected by his mother's love, even as it latched onto a dying Dark Lord. A soul that watched, and waited, and listened, and learned."

Her fear gone, Nagini moved closer, to better hear her master's explanation. She saw the boy pick up his wand, then look at her master with… gratitude?

"Tell them, Cedric. I have his knowledge, his skill. I know his secrets, his methods. Tell them they have an ally. I will find the rest of the Horcruxes. I will hunt the death eaters. Tell the Headmaster and Madam Bones that I swear on my magic, it will be done."

Nagini watched the boy chuckle, despite how exhausted he must be after his ordeal. "Even with my memories, how can I convince them that Lord Voldemort just joined the fight against Lord Voldemort?" _What?_

She saw her master chuckle as well. "Tell them to come to the cemetery near Little Hangleton, just south of Riddle Manor. Tell them to see to the bodies." Her master reached out his hand, and the small trophy flew across the clearing.

"And tell them that Harry Potter sent you." The trophy struck the boy, who disappeared with the stunned form of the rat man. Such was Nagini's shock at his pronouncement that she did not think to move, to speak, to react. She was stunned.

Her master stood up, rolling his neck. A hand went through his unruly black hair. Then he looked in her direction.

"Nagini, we should return to the manor. This graveyard will soon be filled with aurors." She relaxed a little, as she heard him speak in parseltongue.

"Of course, master." was her only reply. He gave her a look, but said nothing. When she had coiled around his legs, he apparated them away.

oOoOoOoOo

 _25 June 1995_  
 _Unplottable Location_  
 _England, UK_

When the pair arrived, Nagini saw not the old and run-down Riddle Manor, but a burned out and decimated ruin. What once had been a grand manor house was nothing but ash and burned timber.

They stood next to a stone column, the only structure that could be said to remain.

"I hope this works." her master muttered to himself. She felt the pulse of magic as he reached out his hand. From the wreckage, a small box flew at them. He caught it effortlessly. She watched as he took a ring from the box and placed it on his hand.

The ring glowed for a moment, and he grunted in pain. A brief flash of worry crossed his features, before the glow ceased. He sighed in relief, looking down at his hand, and the ring that now adorned it. Placing his hand on the column, he spoke words that she could not hear.

Before she could speak, she sensed light coming from the ruin. Except it was no longer a ruin, but a fully restored manor house.

Her master chuckled. "Welcome home, Nagini. Welcome to Potter Manor." He looked down at her, and sensed the turmoil going through her mind. "I told you we would speak, if you'll recall." He smiled as he spoke, but she could sense his tension.

He's worried about how this will go. About us. Why? The bond is broken. If it had been a proper familiar bond, they would both be dead. Since it had been forced, there was little risk of that - but it still hurt, the idea of losing him. _Losing my Master, not him._ Her feelings were a maelstrom. She could feel some connection to this man, something that drew her to him, but he was emphatically not her master. She had no master, if the bond's absence was to be believed.

"Who are you?" She asked, without thinking.

"I was a prisoner." he replied, eyes locked with hers. "Just like you."

She hissed. "It was you, then. How?"

The man smiled. "Voldemort came to my home, seeking to kill me and end my part in the prophecy. And in this, he was successful. Harry Potter died that night." he paused, but when she said nothing he continued. "My mother cast a protective magic on me, and then sacrificed her own life to save mine. That sacrifice caused Voldemort's killing curse to rebound, killing him instead. But he had used two rituals that night - one to create another horcrux, and one to siphon my magic into his own."

He grinned. "It was this second ritual that saved me, for when he attacked me, the protection my mother gave me caused the ritual to backfire. And instead of killing me to create his own horcrux, he took my soul - my entire soul - and made himself a horcrux. For me."

"So you are the boy who slew Voldemort."

"I am. It is a terrifying thing, to realize that you are trapped in the mind of your killer. But I had his memories, I knew what he knew and how he knew it." He shrugged. "As educations go, I don't recommend it. But it did let me see how I could sabotage his plans."

"Like you did with me." Nagini was starting to put the pieces together.

"Yes. I couldn't let him make you a horcrux, because it would split me off and put me there instead. And as much as I admire you, Nagini my dear, I still had work to do."

"And the ritual? What happened tonight? Where did he go?"

"I tricked Wormtail into using my father's bones instead of Voldemort's. Then I forced him to swear an oath to serve the son of his friend James Potter - so he became my servant, even as he still served Voldemort. The riskiest part was Cedric - I had to ask him to willingly give his blood. But when he did, the ritual was reversed." He grinned. "And together, we freed the prisoner." He looked into her eyes. "Both of them, I think."

"Perhaps," she said, still unsure. "So what happened to Voldemort?"

Harry tapped his forehead, where a snake-like scar crossed his forehead. "What little remains of him is here. Once I have destroyed his other horcruxes, I will perform a ritual and remove this piece as well. With nothing to anchor it, he will simply move on. And that will be that."

Nagini stared at him, not even bothering to taste the air. She knew he spoke the truth, but that truth was almost unbelievable.

The man knelt down, putting himself close to eye level with her. "He enslaved us both, Nagini. He will never have the chance to do so again."

She hissed. "I was enslaved long ago." She said, bitterly.

"I know."

 _What the hell?_ "What do you know, exactly, Harry Potter?"

A look of sorrow replaced the grin he had worn almost since they arrived. "I know what happened to you, and how. And I know that you were not always thus." He waved a hand at her, ignoring her hissed gasp. "And I know everything that the most powerful Dark Lord in ages knew."

She closed the distance between them. "There is no cure. It is a curse of the family magic, always carried mother to daughter." Another hiss. "Some things are impossible."

"And yet, here I am." he smiled at her, a sad smile. "If you wish it, I would lift this curse from your line."

"There's no way you can do such a thing." She replied, sounding more sure than she felt. "I gave up my life as a human long ago."

"Nagini," he paused. "You were the first person I spoke to, ever, since my death. You helped save me. If I can do this thing for you, would you wish it?"

She gazed at him, into his eyes. Those green eyes. And she wanted to run, to flee, to do anything but risk this heartbreak once again. Another cure that would never work, another promise broken. But those eyes, she stared into them, and watched as they looked into her.

"You are not a beast, Nagini. You are not a creature. You are not a weapon, a tool, a thing." He looked intently at her, his eyes continuing to peer into her soul. "You walked the earth once as a woman, proud and beautiful. Would you do so again?"

After a time, she could have only one response.

"Yes."


End file.
